Learn How to Get Off Social Media & Smartphones

Most people won’t admit how much social media is effecting their life, and what it means to them. Social media is a part of our lives for over a decayed now, and that being said it surely is hard to cut it out of our life completely. Instead we can always use some tips on how to take back the control of our apps, social media accounts and devices. How often do you open your Facebook or any other social media account, and when you do how much time do you actually spend on it?

The easiest thing is to get lost in our screens as we tap or click from app to app, image to image and scroll through social feeds. In 2018 it is almost impossible to imagine cutting out tech altogether unless we are ready to live in a cabin on the top of some mountain. But what we can do is try to take over the control of how much of our time we spend on it. Here are some tips on how to do exactly that:

Change Notification Settings. What you should do here is stop using push notifications and turn off popups that you receive from all the social accounts. That way you will not have a constant reminder of the social media’s existence and therefor you might save an hour or two daily, of the social media prison. Every application has this option within its settings, all you have to do is set it up.

Grayscale. The “Center for Humane Technology” says that the “colourful icons give our brains shiny rewards every time we unlock”. Even though, this might not sound that much fun but setting your phone to grayscale is a way to train your mind to check your phone less. You can do that by going to Settings -> General -> Accessibility and scroll down to Accessibility Shortcut, on iOS devices. While on Android the process may vary, but you can check it under Settings -> About phone.

Stop using your Phone as an alarm clock. Don’t keep your smartphone within reach at night. It is better if you are charging your phone as far away as possible from your bed so that you are not tempted to pick it up if you wake up in the middle of the night. The best solution however, would be to get a separate alarm clock so your wake-up isn’t tied up to your device.

Set Social Boundaries. Most people still don’t know when is it appropriate to have their smartphones out and when is it considered rude. If you are having face-to-face conversation with someone, not pulling out your device would be the first step toward cutting out an unhealthy and rude habit. Another good rule is to not have devices on the table during meals no matter if it’s in a restaurant or at home.

Switch to a Utility-First Layout. What are the first applications on your home screen? First off, put all social apps in a folder and more them to the last of the home screens. If you want to check them let your mind work for it.

Delete the Apps. If all these tips failed, there is always the nuclear option to delete some of the social apps from your phone. You can always log to them from web.

The most important thing is that you should not forget is that you control your tech, don’t let it control you. Pay more attention to how you spend your free time on social medias and how does that affect you. There is nothing to lose in this case, you can only benefit from it, and who knows maybe even enjoy it.